Catch,
It seems (correct me if I'm wrong) that one of the big things you're bothered by is that christianity is the new kid on the block.
I think Scuba is the one who mentioned 4000 some religions.
Scuba, btw, you make me jealous by your very existence every time you post! I'd love to get scuba certified but landlocked Nebraska doesn't really lend itself to that.
I'm gonna ramble a bit cause there doesn't seem to be much common ground to make any assumptions here other than we all trap and can write English. There's been a lot of generalizations tossed out and not all add up, kind of like someone saying "all furbearers spray". Most of us know better than that. Except Hal.
I get a kick out of Hal.
Those 4000+ religions are kind of a misnomer. Most of them can be lumped together into categories. For example, Christianity isn't considered one religion but each denomination in Christianity is counted as a separate religion because it's a separate "group". That can make the list very long but not have a profound variety of religions. Not all of those 4000 have deities or gods. Buddhism, for example, has no god. Some religions are straight forward acknowledging that they are new and don't claim an "ancient" status, that concept isn't important to them. Not all religions claim that they were first. Nor do all religions condemn all other religions - Ba'Hai, for example, basically teaches that idea of "can't we all just get along" and there's truth in all religions.
They can be boiled down a bit into their respective species and just as mink, beaver and coyote have their distinctive smells, these have similar "odors" to distinguish them from the rest. You can argue the difference between a ranch mink and a wild mink but (I assume) they both smell the same.
First you've got the big three monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. You could lump Zoroastrianism in there but it never amounted to much. They all teach a resurrection of the dead at a coming Last Day.
Then there's the Eastern religions as a whole that really have no god, teach a generic good way of life and possibly reincarnation, hoping to end the cycle and avoid the physical realm. Taoism, Confucianism, Buddhism, Shintoism, Wuism...
Also paganism...in many, many, many forms. There's all of the cultural gods - some governed a country some an element... Greek, Roman, Babylon, Norse, Egyptian, Hittite, Akkadian... Native American, various African, aboriginal, Polynesian... There's old paganism that was just called "paganism" by Christians and new paganism that embrace the term paganism, like Wicca...unless it's the kind of Wicca that has no gods and is more like the eastern religions. Some of these cross borders from one category to another. There's so many but all have a similarity of various gods and/or nature worship.
Last is Hinduism and those religions connected to it/derived from it. Hinduism is like nailing jello to a wall. Some Hindus are polytheists like paganism and some believe in the generic way of life/reincarnation like eastern religions.
In terms of which came first...really, you have Judaism (Christianity and Islam are both dependent on it, in a sense), eastern religions in general, paganism in general, and Hinduism.
The eastern religions...the concept has been around but Confucius wrote down some of this roughly 500 BC. The ideas, some would say, go back to near 1500 BC but based on oral tradition or looser writings that Confucius consolidated.
Paganism in general - depends on which particular culture or group of gods you single out. Some aren't around any more. Knowledge of the old ones is based utterly on what was actually written down for some kind of preserved record. The biblical area in general is also where the oldest archaeological finds are of paganism, as well as the beginning of writing. The Hittites, for example, were around about the same time the very oldest Hindu writings were begun - both are supposed to be about 1700-1100 BC. Sumerian records are much older as they're the ones who are supposed to have invented writing (with three sided sticks, if I remember right). They're easily 1000 years older than most other religions. They're also not around anymore which leaves me to conclude they had puny gods.
The Babylonians - there's record of the Code of Hammurabi. It's from about that 1700 BC time frame as well. That has a lot of laws similar to the ten commandments and some biblical laws, which shouldn't be surprising because they were from the same general area and relatively close to the same time.
The very earliest Hindu writings date to that really vague time frame of 1700 to 1100 BC.
Judaism - the exodus of the mass of Hebrew/Israelite slaves, led by Moses, dates to 1446 BC. Moses is generally understood to have authored the book of Genesis that predates him, presumably by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Typically this is understood as being guided to accurately write down the oral tradition that existed without error rather than have a strange ecstatic mystical experience to create the writing. Moses had at other times strange mystical experiences, don't misunderstand me. But the people were in Egypt for roughly 400 years. The bulk of Genesis describes Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, roughly 2000-1800 BC.
Oral tradition among all of these was important, especially in the early years. In modern day North America nearly everyone is literate so it's understandable to place great importance on the written record. But it's nearly impossible to date a religion based on oral tradition.
I would say that really early paganism and the core of what would become Judaism began roughly at the same time and that one was a maligned picture of the other. Being Christian, I think paganism is what screwed up. Hinduism came not long after and was a confusing mix. And eastern religions are really the new kid on the block.
Judaism, for most of it's history, was looking for a "messiah". There's a promise of an individual to Adam and Eve, to Noah, to Abraham, to David and the idea is explained more throughout the old testament of a specific one who would come from God to be a savior. Christianity emerged not as a new religion but the fulfillment of Judaism and what it had been looking for. Judaism continued because many Jews didn't believe that Jesus was the promised messiah and now Jews either still look for a messiah to come or have reinterpreted the promises to mean something different. Judaism fundamentally changed 2000 years ago and became something different.
Semi-random side note. 666...the meaning: in the book of Revelation there's no gray area - people are either on one side of the fence or the other. It's implied and expected the readers would get the idea that 7 was a number of perfection and 6 was a pretender number - wanting to be God but falling short. People were either marked/baptized with 777, the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit or, if not, they were marked with the pretender, unholy trinity, the devil, the beast and the other beast that had been introduced in the book by that point.
Regarding forced conversion...no one was ever forcibly converted to Judaism. Typically you were born into it. The first few hundred years of christianity it was illegal and if anything, Christians were forced to deny it. Constantine made Christianity legal but it was hundreds of years before the was much forced conversion. Yep, sadly it existed. It was a bad thing. It's the typical human reaction to getting power and favoring their special interest. It doesn't make it ok.
The big bang theory is a guess. It's just as much based in faith as any religion. True science getting repeatable results is impossible with evolution. There's good science that concludes a young earth, however there's also a lot of really sloppy science by well intentioned Christians that has made the idea of a scientific young earth laughable.
Unique concepts in Christianity. Death and resurrection of a deity isn't a new thing. But the death of the deity (Jesus) for the benefit of people, and not for their agricultural benefit or earthly benefit but as a sacrificial act on behalf of the deity (and not the people) to provide an eternal life for them. That's unique to Christianity. Also the resurrection of the dead is unique to Judaism/Christianity...and Islam (the skunk of religions). A physical resurrection...nor reincarnation, not zombies...
"The bible was written to control people." Not sure what you mean. I have some rules to control my kids but it's to keep them safe or keep general order in the house. Though we may disagree with them, each state has trapping regs to control harvest. Is that what you mean? Or a different kind of control?
One of the quirks that has come up with the difference between Judaism and Christianity is how the law is viewed. The law had set the Jews aside as unique because the Messiah would come from him. Once he had come the unique laws were understood in the new testament to have been fulfilled.
Don't know if this answers any of the questions satisfactorily. It's long enough...it should count as more than one post. 😂😂😂